


The Old College Try

by 42hrb



Series: The Jaytim Canon Divergent AU No One Asked For [2]
Category: Batman (Comics), DCU (Comics), Red Hood and the Outlaws (Comics)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Blow Jobs, College Student Tim, Flirting, Jaytim - Freeform, M/M, Sass
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-03-16
Updated: 2017-03-16
Packaged: 2018-10-06 04:57:18
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,312
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10326068
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/42hrb/pseuds/42hrb
Summary: It isn't that Tim doesn't like college, it's just that he misses the vigilante lifestyle. Not that he'd say that out loud.Enter Jason.





	

**Author's Note:**

> Huge that's the L for telling me to finish this and to G for the beta. Y'all rock. 
> 
> This takes place after [Rumor Has it](https://archiveofourown.org/works/10164626), but you don't have to read that to understand what's happening here.
> 
> Set in an AU where Tim didn't go missing/die during the events of Detective Comics 940.

Tim likes college just fine, he really does. It was just that college is surprisingly quiet. He was used to the sounds of the city all around him. Most people felt safer in the quiet, but Tim knew better. He knew that there was danger in the silence of a small town, or in the quiet of a college town.

He felt like he was moving in slow motion though each day. Logically he knew that when he graduated, he’d be better equipped to help save the world from whatever catastrophe happened next, but in his heart he felt like he was leaving Gotham and his family vulnerable. He had a near constant ache in his chest, like a piece of himself was missing while he was safely tucked away in the sleepy town.

It had only been two months, but it felt like two years. He wouldn’t go home to Gotham for another two weeks when he had a few days off of classes for Thanksgiving. He’d never admit it out loud, but he’d been hoping for a big enough disaster that they call him in. He’s got the itch under his skin that he used to feel when he first watched Batman and the then-Robin. 

“Yes, Steph, I’ve been sleeping plenty,” Tim said one evening as he walked back to his down from the library. “Pretty much double what I slept back home.”

“We both know that’s still not enough sleep,” Steph said, but Tim could hear the smile in her voice. “Oh shit, I gotta go. Cass just came through my window.”

“Hi Cass!” Tim yelled as Steph hung up the phone, sending Tim back to the painful quiet. 

Even his room was too quiet. His scholarship offered him a single in the dorms, and at first, Tim thought that he’d like the privacy, but now... Now, he missed the invasion of privacy that came with having family in his space. 

The hair on the back of his neck stood on end as he pushed his door open. “It’s late; shouldn’t you be in bed, young man?”

Tim couldn’t help the smile that pulled at his mouth. “What the hell are you doing here, Jason?”

“I was in the neighborhood,” Jason said from where he lounged on Tim’s bed, his heavy boots lying on the floor.

"Why are you here, Jay?" Tim asked again as he shucked his bag and leaned against his desk, eyes raking over Jason for any visible injuries.

"Can't a guy come see his 'brother'?" Jason asked with a smirk, running a hand through his hair and making it even more disheveled.

Tim rolled his eyes at that. “If you were Dick, or hell, even Damian, I’d say yes, but not you, Jason. What’s your game?”

“No game! Maybe I just missed you, sweetheart,” Jason said with a charming smile. “Thought I’d come play college kid for the weekend.”

“In full armor?” Tim said more than asked, eyeing Jason’s kevlar and helmet that he had also discarded on the floor. “What, are Harley and Ivy planning a trip to college, too?”

Jason snorted at that and Tim bit back a smile. “Okay, you caught me. I’m not just here to see you.” Tim gave him a look that clearly said “go on”, so Jason did. “A couple Gotham gangs are trying to bust into this college market. I didn’t care when it was just weed, but they’re bringing in the harder stuff now.”

“You could have just called me,” Tim said. “I can handle a few gang members and some drugs.”

“Vicki Vale’s still trying to connect you with Red Robin; suiting up here would be the nail in your coffin if anyone saw you,” Jason said. Tim knew he was right, but he didn’t want to admit it. “So, I brought you something.”

Jason tossed a helmet at him, blue and shiny. It was the twin of Jason’s own red helmet. “You expect me to wear this?”

“If you want to help,” Jason said with a grin. It was sharp and real, and it cut to Tim’s core. This was the Jason Todd that he had taken pictures of when he was Robin and the Jason Todd that had come back to Gotham on a mission. He was somehow both Jasons at the same time and neither of them at all, because neither of those Jasons would have come to Tim, and neither of them would have let him help.

“Fine,” Tim said after a beat. “What’s the plan, Hood?”

This smile was the one from the Jason he knew; it was one that he assumed Jason wore under his mask. This smile meant business. Like every other smile Jason had, it made Tim’s stomach flip, but at least this one was in the usual way. 

Apparently, Jason’s plan was to wait on the roof of the bar that most of the underage kids frequented and then bust through the skylight when the Gotham dealers started selling their product. 

Tim didn’t hate the plan; he actually kind of liked it. It was straight-to-the-point and he got to punch one dealer. He looked familiar; Tim was pretty sure he had kicked the guy’s ass back in Gotham. 

He had never fancied himself a violent person, but really all of the Bats were at least a little violent. Tim was no different,  _ and _ it had been two months since he last saw action; he had some pent-up aggression that he was getting out. 

It took them all of six minutes from getting into the bar to having the two dealers zip tied to each other. Tim was grinning under his helmet. They had worked like a well oiled machine, and though Tim had taken a couple of good hits, it felt  _ good _ . Once again, he wondered if going to college had been the right move. He missed this. 

“Called the cops in, did ya, Blue?” Jason asked him and Tim flipped him off. 

“I don’t know how you wear a helmet like this all the time,” Tim said, pulling out his grappling gun and lifting out of the bar. He could hear Jason do the same thing behind him. “I feel like I can’t breathe right.”

“You get used to it,” Jason said and Tim could hear the smile in his voice. God, he felt so good. He wanted to go fight more crime. Like Jason could hear his thoughts, he said, “Want to go find some more trouble?”

“Hell yeah,” Tim said before jumping the six feet to the next rooftop. The buildings were farther apart here than in Gotham, but they’d make it work. 

\------

It was three in the morning by the time Jason and Tim made it back to Tim’s dorm. Jason’s body was still thrumming with adrenaline from breaking up an armed robbery of one of the bars down on the strip. He didn’t expect much action in Ivy, but he should have; trouble seemed to follow him wherever he went. 

“You staying tonight?” Tim asked, peeling his helmet off and tossing it haphazardly on his unmade bed. Jason bit back a smile at the grin on Tim’s face, at the way his hair stood on end from the helmet, at flush in Tim’s cheek. He would never say it out loud, but he had missed the shit out of the replacement. Tim was by far his favorite Bat. 

“Yeah, I’d probably fall asleep on my bike if I tried to leave tonight,” Jason said, taking his own helmet off and starting to strip his armor. They both moved expertly, Tim’s long fingers disengaging his security on his before he tossed it to the side and pulling his undershirt off, too. 

Jason didn't know why he was surprised at the number of scars that were littered across Tim's skin. They all had them, they all lived the same lifestyle, but Tim had always seemed untouched. He wore his Timothy Drake-Wayne mask well, better than Jason ever had. But Tim’s skin looked like it had been to war in a way that his smile would never give away. 

Jason knew that wasn't true, though; he knew the smile had been to war and back, just like the rest of him. He also knew that some of those scars were from him, but still, seeing the marked flesh made Tim all the more real before him as Tim stripped off the last of his gear.

"Not as rusty as I thought you'd be," Jason said, more for himself than for Tim. He needed to cut the tension even if he was the only one feeling it. 

"Not as murderous as I thought you'd be," Tim countered and Jason let out a breath he hadn't known he was holding. They were still Jason and Tim then; that was good. “Want a shower? They should be pretty empty at this hour.”

“That’d be great,” Jason said, hoping a cold shower would clear his head. 

He wasn’t sure when his feelings, attraction, infatuation,  _ whatever _ , with Tim had started, but he knew that Tim being away and then seeing him again hadn’t helped at all. If anything, seeing Tim again after a few months apart made him want him  _ more _ . Okay, so maybe he had been looking for an excuse to see Tim. Maybe working with his new band of outlaws was making him soft. He could have easily sent Tim the information he had and called it a day, but here he was, about to shower in a shitty dorm shower with Tim just feet away. 

“You would think,” Jason said as he stepped under the cold water, hanging his towel on the hook next to his stall, “with all the money you pay to go to this big, fancy school, they could upgrade the showers.”

“I don’t pay any money to go here,” Tim said from his stall. Jason could see the steam coming out from under and above the curtain and smell Tim’s minty shampoo. 

“Nerd,” Jason said with a laugh, accepting the shampoo from Tim’s disembodied hand. 

“Says the guy who can quote Austin without a second thought,” Tim shot back. He sounded happier than he had when Jason had arrived. Jason hoped it was because of him, but he had a feeling it had more to do with the adrenaline and the fact that Tim had missed being a hero. 

“I’m well-read, not a nerd,” Jason said, but he was smiling. 

“Are we going to have this argument again?”

“Only if you want to lose,” Jason said, shutting his shower off and grabbing the towel off the hook and finding Tim’s arm instead. Tim handed him the towel and they both stepped out of the shower at the same time. “You know I’d win that fight, and any fight.”

“You’ve lost plenty of fights with me,” Tim said with a smirk, shaking his wet hair like a dog and getting the droplets on Jason. He reached out and pushed Tim into the wall as they walked and Tim snorted. 

“Get it, Drake,” a drunken voice called from down the hall. Jason saw Tim’s neck burn red and he bit back a smirk. “Didn’t tell me you had hot boyfriend coming to visit, that why you cancelled on us? Be as loud as you want, I’ll be passed out in ten minutes flat.”

“Drink some fucking water, Mark,” Tim called back with a huffed out laugh.

“Look at you, Timbo, you’re making friends,” Jason said and Tim shoved him with his still-damp shoulder as they walked into the room. 

“Don’t push it,” Tim said, shimmying in his towel like he was trying to hide a boner. Jason’s eyes went a little wide; Tim was totally trying to hide a boner.

“What’s going on over there, baby bird?”

“Adrenaline rush,” Tim said, running a hand over the back of his wet head and adjusting himself again. Jason could practically feel Tim willing his boner away. “I haven’t done that in months; what did you expect?”

Jason swallowed before he spoke, steeling himself for rejection and getting ready to play off his comment as a joke. “Want some help with that? It’s only fair, since you helped me out tonight.”

He heard Tim’s breath catch in his throat, saw the back of his neck turn red again, and got ready to give Tim a shit-eating grin when he turned around to punch him. “Yeah, fuck, okay.”

“Okay?”

“Don’t make me overthink this, Jay,” Tim said as he turned around, his eyes on Jason’s mouth. “And don’t you overthink it, either.”

“All the blood from my brain is a little preoccupied right now, sweetheart,” Jason said before their mouths crashed together. 

In retrospect, starting a makeout session while wearing nothing but towels after a night of vigilante justice probably wasn’t either of their best ideas, but Jason didn’t give a single fuck. He couldn’t, not in that moment at least. Not with Tim’s skin under his hands, with Tim’s mouth on his mouth, with Tim pushing him until his thighs bumped against the bed. Jason slid onto it so that Tim could step between his legs.

“Shit, replacement, who taught you that?” Jason said as Tim bit his earlobe and ran a hand down his back to where the towel was somehow still on his waist. 

Tim pulled back to look at Jason, a smirk tugging at his lips and his blue eyes bright. “Want me to tell you where I learned it, or do you want me to show you what else I know?”

Jason’s brain nearly short circuited. “The latter.”

“Then shut up,” Tim said before going back to kiss Jason again, this time nipping at his lip and grinding against him. Jason pushed himself a little further toward the edge of the bed to get better friction and let his eyes flutter shut as they moved together, the only thing separating them being the soft cotton towels. 

Any other day, any other moment, Jason would have kept talking just to annoy Tim, but right now he was like putty in Tim’s hands. His lips parted of their own accord and felt Tim’s tongue slide in. Tim kissed him like he meant it, like Jason was the only thing that mattered, and for tonight he’d let himself think that was true. 

Before Jason knew what was happening, Tim was on the bed and Jason was under him. He liked this Tim, the one who didn’t have to hide his skills and training, the one who didn’t wear a mask. The look Tim gave him was fully Tim Drake, not Tim Drake-Wayne, not Red Robin, just Tim, and the look was hungry.

“Tim,” Jason said, voice rougher than he had expected, “I want, I want -”

“I’ve got you, Jay,” Tim said, moving down Jason’s body, kissing and nipping at his chest, down his stomach until Tim was between his legs, one hand on the towel. He tapped Jason’s hip and Jason lifted just enough for Tim to pull the towel off and toss it aside. 

“Fuck, Tim,” Jason breathed out as Tim ran his hands up Jason’s thighs before he lowered his mouth to Jason’s cock and took the tip in. It was better than Jason had ever imagined it would be, hot and wet and  _ Tim _ . His voice was shaking when he breathed out, “Tim.”

Tim hummed around his cock and it sent a jolt of lighting down Jason’s spine. He had been hard half the night between the adrenaline and Tim’s ass in his spandex, so he knew he wouldn’t last long, but he was determined to enjoy the ride, especially since he figured it was the one and only time he’d get a ticket. 

He didn’t want to know who Tim had practiced on, probably Kon, but that didn’t matter. What mattered was the way Tim hollowed his cheeks and sucked Jason down, all the while looking up at him through thick lashes. It was the prettiest damn sight he’d ever seen, and Jason had seen some pretty shit. 

“Gonna come,” Jason said, tugging on Tim’s hair.

Tim pulled off, the hot sensation of his mouth was replaced with his hand, it took two tugs before Jason came with a grunt, white striping his stomach and chest. 

“I’ve wanted to do that for awhile,” Tim said after a second, eyes on Jason’s face as he speaks, “I’ll probably want to do it again too.”

“First...” Jason said, shifting so that Tim was pinned under him. He used Tim’s towel to clean his chest off and then kissed and bit Tim’s thighs, making his way painstakingly slowly down to Tim’s leaking cock. “I’m going to ruin you.”

He saw Tim swallow before Jason took Tim’s cock into his mouth. The salty taste of precome on his tongue and Jason had to fight off a smile. Even his come tasted good; was there anything that the replacement wasn’t good at? 

Jason was determined to give Tim the best blow job the kid would ever get in his life. He swirled his tongue around the head of Tim’s cock before bobbing back down and taking as much as he could down his throat. Tim was bigger than he had expected, which shouldn’t have surprised him. Tim was full of surprises. 

“Jay, Jay, fuck,” Tim said and Jason looked up at him. Tim was flushed, his head back against the pillow and Jason could tell he was fighting the urge to fuck into his mouth. 

Tim looked so good like this, damp hair sticking up everywhere, eyes shut, his lip between his teeth to stop himself from making any more noise. Jason pulled off with a pornographic pop and said, “Fuck my mouth, baby bird, I can handle it.”

“Fuck,” Tim said as Jason took him into his mouth again. 

Tim’s hips bucked up an inch and Jason relaxed his throat, letting Tim dictate the speed. This was more than Jason had expected when he showed up that afternoon; it was more than he ever expected from Tim, but fuck if he wasn’t loving every second of it. 

“Close,” Tim said through pants, “So close.”

Instead of pulling off, Jason kept sucking. He wanted to taste Tim when he came. He didn’t have to wait long; not twenty seconds later, Tim came down Jason’s throat. He sucked one last time and the pulled off, lickings his lips to make sure he didn’t miss a drop. “Damn, darlin’, you’re something else.”

“I’m clean,” Tim said quickly, like he was worried that Jason would be mad at him for coming in his mouth even though he had given Jason time to pull off. 

“I wasn’t worried about it,” Jason told him. In all honestly he hadn't even thought about it, but now that he was, he figured that’s why Tim had finished him with his hand. “I am too, just for the record. I can’t have something like an STI benching me; I’m Red Hood.”

Tim laughed, his eyes crinkling at the corners, which told Jason it was a real laugh. “I’ll keep that in mind for next time.”

“Next time, huh?” Jason said, leaning forward and kissing Tim’s jaw. “Next time as in when we wake up and then we never talk about it again, or next time as in this can be a thing that happens now?”

“Both,” Tim said, casual, but Jason saw him flush. He ran his fingers through Tim’s shaggy hair as he spoke and Tim leaned into the touch. 

“Both is good,” Jason said with a smile into Tim’s neck. Both really was good, and maybe this would be the best of both worlds, kicking ass and then naked sleepovers with Tim Drake. Jason sure wasn’t going to complain about any of that. 

**Author's Note:**

> [](exhuastedpigeon.tumblr.com>tumblr</a>)


End file.
